Houston is one of the most economically significant cities not just in Texas but in the whole USA, possibly the world. It therefore has a wealth of business opportunities, in both the business-to-business and business-to-consumer sectors.
To access them, however, you will need to offer and maintain the highest levels of service quality. With that in mind, here is a quick guide to implementing a Houston data center.
With a Houston data center, you are perfectly located to serve the largest city in Texas. Houston is known for its robust economy and is particularly strong in energy, healthcare, aeronautics, and transportation. All of these sectors typically demand the fastest levels of service. Usually, the best way to achieve this is to implement a local Houston data center.
Houston is the southeast point of the Texas Triangle that includes Austin, Dallas/Fort Worth, Houston, and San Antonio and contains Interstates 10, 35, and 45. It is also close to the Gulf Coast and the neighboring state of Louisiana.
Implementing a Houston data center gives you all the usual benefits of doing business in Texas. These include robust infrastructure (both physical and digital), a business-focused state government, and access to skilled workers.
Here is an overview of the key points you need to consider when choosing a Houston data center.
If you want to deliver services and/or data at maximum speed, then it would be useful to have a Houston data center located near a network hub and/or your users. In either case, this would probably mean a fairly central location.
If, however, your users would be happy with a slower speed, then it could be practical for you to look outside the center of Houston. Choosing a data center in a more outlying part of Houston could allow you to access significantly more attractive prices from your provider.
The security considerations for a Houston data center are much the same as for most data centers. The main location-specific consideration is the potential for hurricanes and the floods they can generate.
Houston as a whole has implemented robust infrastructure and mitigation measures to address the risks associated with hurricanes. Any reputable Houston data center vendor will have made sure that they are equipped to deal with both hurricanes and floods. It is, however, advisable to check any potential vendor’s level of preparedness.
Likewise, an organization’s compliance situation typically depends on the type of data it holds (and its owners) rather than its location. This means that it’s unlikely that there will be any Houston-specific compliance issues. If, however, you are expanding into new industry sectors, you may need to comply with additional data security standards.
For practical purposes, reliability means uptime in other words, time the data center is fully operational. All Houston data center vendors should provide an uptime guarantee. For this to be meaningful, it needs to be written into a contract and backed by penalties. Guarantees should also be checked against the data center’s tier rating and its historical performance data.
Power: Given that Houston is a global hub for the energy industry, you can expect any Houston data center to have a reliable power supply plus a backup. What’s more, you can expect your energy costs to be very affordable due to the attractive pricing in Texas. To make the most of this, look for a Houston data center vendor with high energy efficiency.
Climate control: Like much of Texas, Houston regularly experiences severe heat, particularly in summer. The climate is also very humid with levels of around 90% being common in the mornings. This means that effective climate control needs to be a top priority for any Houston data center.
Networking: In addition to checking the speed and reliability of the connection, it’s advisable to check for carrier-neutrality, interconnectivity, and multicloud support. Carrier-neutrality is a benefit to all organizations as it provides maximum operational flexibility. Interconnectivity and multicloud support may not have the same immediate relevance for all organizations. Having a vendor support them, however, can be useful future-proofing.
IT equipment: If you’re planning to use vendor-provided IT equipment, it’s important to check exactly what is on offer. You should also check the options for customization and scaling.
When you’re looking for a Houston data center, remember to evaluate the quality of the vendor as well as the quality of the facility. If you want to make the most of your new operational base, you need to work with a vendor who takes customer service seriously.
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